George-Harold Jennings, author of 'Passages Beyond the Gate' sits in his office in Sycamore Cottage at Drew University in Madison.

Traditionally, most conversations in the world of American psychology have placed people in one of two categories -- those with normal states of mind and those who are mentally ill. There are gradations of normal and abnormal, of course, and the two may meld, only to separate again with the help of therapy.

But that model of consciousnessness isn't enough to satisfy a growing number of transpersonal psychologists, like Drew University Professor George-Harold Jennings of Madison, who want to expand studies to include positive transcendent states of mind. They are making progress.

Recently, transpersonal psychology -- and specifically Jennings' book "Passages Beyond the Gate" -- was covered for the first time in the latest edition of "Personality Theories," a widely used textbook. Also, the American Psychological Association in February will launch Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, its first specialized journal in the field.

"Psychology in the United States always has been suspicious of exploring spirituality," said Loyola College Professor Ralph Piedmont, editor of the new journal. "Yet 90 percent of Americans say they're spiritual, and spiritual people have been shown to have better self-esteem and more resilience and satisfaction with life. It seems incredible for psychology to ignore this fact."

Jennings hasn't. Not for years. In his office, where the desk brims with psychology books, including seminal works by transpersonal pioneers such as Ken Wilber and Charles T. Tart, he displayed his color model of consciousness on his computer. Years in the making, the model is the next thing he intends to launch into the field.

A plain white circle symbolizes normal everyday states of mind and a blue one, gradated dark to light, all mental illnesses.

"You may be mildly or severely mentally ill," he said, "but if you are in this blue realm we want to do all we can to get you out of it and put you into the normal realm."

A third red sphere popped up on his screen. It represents the fulfilled state of mind of a person who experiences transcendent states of mind.

"What is transpersonal psychology fundamentally about? It's about transcending, or getting beyond, the ego," Jennings said. "It's about allowing a person to experience a sense of oneness with something greater than himself -- often the cosmos or the divine." He laughed. "That's not normal, but it's a good thing!"

He clicked his mouse and merged the blue sphere of mental illness with the red sphere of transcendence, creating an intersecting orb of purple he calls "spiritual crisis." There is a difference, he said, between a crisis and an illness. That is the distinction he believes American psychology must acknowledge and explore if it is to be as complete a science and useful a discipline as it can be.

"There's a group of people who are being mistaken as mentally ill and treated that way, but they're not mentally ill," Jennings explained. "They're in crisis so perhaps they're depressed, but fundamentally there's a spiritual thing going on. That's not easy for psychology to comprehend."

Spirituality often involves belief in God, Piedmont said, and, as a science, psychology deals with physical realities. While God cannot be measured, he added, spirituality can, as evidenced by various scales that gauge numinous qualities, such as his own "ASPIRES Spiritual Transcendence Scale."

Image-of-God studies reveal that people's image of God is related to how they see themselves and their parents, he said. What most intrigues American psychology now, he said, is how spiritual issues such as mindfulness and gratitude, when employed in therapy, can help people change for the better.

"The study of mindfulness is considered a part of 'consciousness studies,'" Jennings said. "Psychologists love that phrase. It has a scientific ring to it."

But myriad other transpersonal experiences, including telepathy, out-of-body experiences and hypnotic regression to past lives are hardly entertained at all in a field where, as Jennings writes in "Passages Beyond the Gate," a belief in God is still seen by some as a phenomenon based on wish fulfillment.

Jennings, 55, sensed there was more to the human experience than traditional psychological approaches allowed during his clinical training at the Yale School of Medicine and graduate school days at The Pennsylvania State University.

Even far before that era, he was reflective and intuitive as a child in Jersey City, feeling transcendence in the Gospel music he heard at his African Methodist Episcopal Church and the albums his God-fearing, factory-working father brought home.

"For those few moments you listen, you really step out of everyday reality," he said. "You release yourself."

Essentially, intuition is the missing element in American psychology, according to Jennings, and that may be because Americans score high on the Myers-Briggs personality inventory test as sensory people who like to touch, feel and taste things.

"They are curious about intuition, but not good at it," he said. "It's like everyone's from Missouri, the show-me state."

Psychologies from other cultures -- such as the British in Europe and the Ashanti in Ghana -- already have integrated intuition, or a transpersonal dimension, he said.

Ann Saltzman, another Drew psychology professor, is pleased to see Jennings' work finally getting the recognition it deserves. She said he has long brought a unique and different clinical point of view to the Drew faculty and is popular with students.

"His classes are sometimes even oversubscribed," she said.

Though states of transcendence and contentment, and the passages that lead to them, are not central to American psychological thought, people like Jennings and Piedmont have not lost heart. They know a soul, because it is intangible, can be difficult to study.

But so is an ego, Jennings said. It is a mainstay of American psychological thought, but who can say they ever saw one?

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Drew psych professor explores spirit, religion

Drew University psychology professor George-Harold Jennings incorporates studies about spirituality and religion in his research and teaching.

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